Like velvet laid over gravel, Millsap’s voice plays gruff, jagged and unexpectedly smooth at the same time. He captures the essence of Tom Waits’ vocals better than a 19-year-old singer ever should; fans of Closing Time-era Waits will find lots to like here, albeit more countrified. The opening title track saunters with a saucy strut […]
torrent
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Chug along
From The Byrds to The Band, country-inspired folk rock played a huge part in the path Last Train Home has taken since forming in 1997. So did Slayer and Megadeth. For seven years, bandleader Eric Brace was a Washington Post music columnist before quitting to focus on his burgeoning roots-rock outfit. The time he spent […]
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The Perfect Family
The joke of The Perfect Family, of course, is that no such thing exists. Yet in the film, just as in real life, some people put on airs that suggest otherwise. The situation at the heart of this dramedy — running Friday through Mother’s Day at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art — is timely, […]
Posted inMusic
Hud home
Hudson Moore is something of a young gun on the country circuit. At just 22, he’d seem more at place at college than opening for the likes of Alan Jackson. In truth, he’d be right in the thick of finals if not dropping out to pursue music full-time. “I had these songs that I had […]
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Rather chilling
Vacationer’s work isn’t so much songs as aural postcards from Mumbai or St. Croix. The relaxing electro is certainly a far cry from the frenetic pop-punk that made mastermind Kenny Vasoli famous with The Starting Line. “I always just want to make the music that makes me excited,” he said. “I’d been getting deeper and […]
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Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of Heart of Glass
As the subtitle suggests, Greenberg offers a fly-on-the-wall account of celebrated director Werner Herzog shooting his 1976 feature, Heart of Glass. While hardly among the greatest entries on the German filmmaker’s résumé, it’s notable for being the one where he hypnotized most of the cast before shooting every scene. For Herzog, it was merely an […]
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Archie Meets KISS
But who should follow these beasts from another dimension? Why, Gene Simmons and his bandmates, who proclaim, “We’re gonna rock those monsters back where they came from!!” (Double exclamation points theirs.) Therefore, the excellent title of Archie Meets KISS is fulfilled — certainly the greatest team-up in comics history since 1994’s Archie Meets the Punisher. […]
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The Shock Labyrinth
This is surprising, given that the Japanese horror feature was directed by Takashi Shimizu, the guy who birthed The Grudge franchise. Not that he’s an infallible filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but Labyrinth finds him revisiting those reliable themes, with the added dimension — literally — of playing in 3-D. (Well Go USA’s […]
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Strip Strip Hooray!
If you’ve seen one of these black-and-white oddities, you’ve seen them all, whether or not they’re included here. I challenge even the most patient among you to sit through all half-dozen. Even with breaks, I’m not certain it can be done without cracking. Title notwithstanding, striptease is just a part of the proceedings, with pure-vanilla […]
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Haywire
Similarly, he’s now built a movie around MMA fighter Gina Carano. The difference is that Haywire is no throwaway, for-the-fun-of-it flick, but a legitimate art film and literate espionage vehicle. Double-crossed in a Barcelona job, “company” agent Mallory Kane (Carano) finds herself set up — by her boss and lover, no less (Ewan McGregor, Beginners) […]